past metal treatments and egg/hatchlings???

[Nate Peters]

hi guys. i want to purchase a few cuttle eggs and try my hand with these interesting animals. i have recently (a few months ago) had to treat my show tank (and prospective home for these eggs) with copper sulfate. after my reef fish were treated I had done 100% water changes after the fact. (2 to be exact) so i believe my tank is free of copper although trace amounts may be present. i cant seem to find any thing to check copper levels so im wondering if it would be safe to place the eggs and hatchlings in the tank, would they be healthy or ok? or would these possible trace elements harm the eggs/hatchlings? im hoping everything should be sound. do you know of any tools i could use? or do you think i should be ok? responses are appreciated.. thanks

Nate

 

[CaptFish]

You can not use that tank. to be able to use you must remove and replace all the silicon in the tank, as the copper bonds to the silicon and will kill cephs.

 

[Nate Peters]

You can not use that tank. to be able to use you must remove and replace all the silicon in the tank, as the copper bonds to the silicon and will kill cephs.

Hi ive been researching how i can break these silicone and copper bonds without dismembering my tank, (ive got no place in my home to displace objects/inhabitants so i asked some friends who know chemistrey rather well. I was told that If i added calcium (i use kalkawasser/purple power on a regular basis) the copper bonds would be broken and replaced with calcium to silicone bonds. so i believe ive eliminated that problem (please correct me if im wrong) as far as copper levels go i should have none (im growing algae in vary numerous numbers) but i will be buying a test kit this week. anything in particular i should look for? what do you think so far??


Thanks Nate

 

[DWhatley]

From prior discussions, there are not consumer kits that will detect low enough levels of copper but it would be nice to learn more about the validity of using calcium including the water ratio and duration for clearing a tank of any copper traces.

 

[ceph]

The general advice is that once you blast a tank with a copper based medication it is no longer suitable for cephalopods. In the future: removing the fish to a separate quarantine tank or even bucket for treatment eliminates this problem.

What kind of fish?

I strongly advise against keeping cephalopods in that system.

 

[Nate Peters]

I understand what you mean. I will not be getting any eggs unless my system can provide a happy healthy life. Mind you though I had done all of this in August including the 2 100% water changes after I killed off the ich. I have been keeping many snails and algae with no problems as far as I can tell. My copper product was mardel's "copper safe" that I had kept in my show tank for 2 weeks. After that time I had done the water changes. After that I have been adding a cap full of "purple power" / kalkawasser once a day from September till today. My fish are 1 fox face rabbit fish, 1 engineer goby and 1 scissor tail dart fish. Although I was planning on a divider to seperate the two.

 

[Nate Peters]

Alright. i bought a copper test kit and it read negative for copper. In order to remove leeching and minor traces i decided to bomb it with a stress Zyme containing EDTA to remove the remaining copper. I do believe This will solve the problem,

I think I am ready to buy a clutch of eggs but I may go with a sea horse or something less sensetive? Should I go ahead? I understand you advise against it but i feel this Has changed the situation, I do value the opinion of experts such as your selves, What are your thoughts?